Security will bite you in the ass

It is the trapping of this generation. Listen to me: there is no safety in security. How so?

Security of health:
Security of health is central to one of the largest aspects of this political debate. Will you vote for someone, because they promise the possibility of longer life for your corporal vessel?

Work to preserve your vessel. Treat it as a temple (and you'll find your spirit feels more at home), but remember: your body will pass. Let it! Medicine's plethora treatments and preventions are an outlet for your fear of death, a casino to spend your money and indulge this base feeling. Get fixed if you hurt yourself, and go in if you get sick, but if you do, remember: you have an opportunity (healthcare) that a very small fraction of the world has access to. Healthcare is an inexact and constantly evolving science, fraught with all the problems humans bring to any situation, and complicated with the element of money (note the faiths which forbid the practice of medicine for pecuniary compensation). Are you going to have something fixed? Will you be disappointed if that part no longer works as it did before, or if the doctor makes a human mistake? Are you going simply for the comfort of having a scientific name to call your ailment by? Are you prepared for the possibility of the diagnosis being wrong, or there being nothing to help your condition, when you are diagnosed?

Are you prepared for there to be a simple, inexpensive, effective treatment, which requires no medication but significant lifestyle change, or will you ask for the chemical shortcut?

If you go in for a serious ailment, are you prepared to accept the eventual fact that there may be no treatment which works, not because your doctors are incompetent, or because your hospital was under-equipped, but simply because the marvelously complex reactions within your body were no longer able to sustain themselves, despite the best medical science?

Accept that your body is finite, marvel at how far it's taken you, and do everything in your power to heal it, when possible, while learning to suffer the symptoms we are so wont to merely treat.

Security from pain:
They will work to convince you that alternative paths are painful. Pain is the feeling of attachment to the body. Pain arrises where there is discomfort, but only when there is also fear. Remove the fear, remove the attachment.

As an example: do you take anesthetic at the dentist? I do, because it friggin hurts! But here's the rub: the pain is still there, and sometimes it shows through. With anesthetic you know there's an outlet: moan, take another shot, and maybe there's less pain. Without? You know you're in the chair, you know it hurts, and you know there's nothing to do about it. When you're able to say (and trust that) 'this pain is not causing me harm, this pain is necessary and unavoidable,' the pain starts to fade into the background, like all the other pains we feel from sitting, walking, working, etc.. Conversely, when there's an outlet, it draws our focus, and the pain takes on a new immediacy.

Drs are the most prolific drug pushers in this country. They will shackle you to opiates and SSRIs, push surgeries and other therapies, and they will leverage your fear of pain to do so.
Accept that there is discomfort, have faith in your body, that it might heal what is damaged, and look not for where to lay down and suffer, but where to stand up and live

Security from hunger:
Maybe you eat like its the last time you'll see food, or maybe you're confident from your 10 years of beans, rice, and spam you've got stashed away.

Don't get me wrong: shit happens, nothing's perfect, and no place on this earth is completely safe from natural, social, or military disaster; I think it's downright irresponsible to think that someone else will provide for your basic needs in time of crisis. Right now, long term food stores are probably the best investment you can make but remember, your island of security will start to look very attractive. Hunger is one of the most frighteningly powerful desires that exists. Have you felt it? Do you know what becomes of your mind, 5, 10, 15 days after your last meal?

More importantly, can you face your neighbors, family, and friends, when their faces show such hunger? Would you feed them, and split your supply? Would you fight them? Could you win?

Learn what hunger feels like, yours and others. Work at a soup kitchen, try a fast. Eat food that you feel good about, while turning down that which simply slakes your hunger. If you are so lucky, eat what you can grow sustainably, but without forgetting:

Security of property:
This is a big one: locks, guns, car alarms, fences---stuff to keep people from taking your stuff, or traipsing on your property. What do you have that's worth locking up? Is it also worth risking your life over, or the life of a loved one? Is it worth killing over?

Perhaps you have property in the form of fiat currency. Perhaps you'd like to convert this to something more universally valued. Will you choose a metal? Do you know what that metal is worth in terms of useful items (food, water, gasoline, etc.)? Will you have sufficiently small denominations to actually be useful, and a way to accurately weigh the commodity?

Is your property an extension of your ego, such that an attack against it is inherently personal? A scratched farm truck is a tool showing wear from use. A scratched show car is a shame and a nagging problem. What would happen if you were to loose such property, would your quality of life be diminished?

Is your ego an extension of your property, such that you shape your life around your possessions? Do you feel compelled to take out your pontoon boat or RV, or make a once-a-year skiing trip, simply because you've spent good money on the things and have to make them 'worth it?' Do you even know if breaking even on such a purchase is achievable in a reasonable amount of time, or are you simply too proud to back down.

Think about the tools you use to live: is your home useful to you? Do you have any land for a garden, or did you opt for square footage over acreage? If not, is it really worth defending, is it worth trying to stay behind, in a house designed for a lifestyle whose days are passing?

Useful property contains intrinsic value, it extends the capacity of your labors, and it lasts generations. Before you buy, think, will your children have a use for it? WIll your grandchildren? If so, guard it with your life.

Security from boredom:
To some of you, this one will seem unfounded. That is because, while most of these points are a mix of human fear and industrial encouragement, this one is entirely artificial. Not only has the entertainment industry convinced you electronic entertainment is as much a staple as soda and white bread, but they've convinced you that you will not be happy without this constant stimulation. Like to play board games with friends? You're a dweeb. Like to reed a book? Nerd. Tend a garden? Hick. Don't follow the latest shows, and you're not cultured. Don't follow the news? How dare you, they say, not be an 'informed citizen.'

Asymmetric (i.e. one directional, performer to audience) style entertainment is actually quite unusual in a historical context. We see it in ancient Rome, at the colosseum. We see it in the church (mass may not seem all that exciting today, but when it breaks up your week of serfdom, involves music, and allows for sitting..). This is in stark contrast to social entertainment: dances, poetry slams, or even just cards with friends. When entertainment is something we do for each other, we become closer; we learn, debate, and converse. When entertainment is delivered, we become isolated in our submissive role as recipients. When all attention is focused on the source of stimulation, conversation becomes rude and disruptive, and critical discussion becomes unwanted distraction.

We learn (or are inculcated with) the skill of passive reception in school, but long beyond graduation, we apply these skills in the oddest of venues: our places of entertainment. Cinema and theater are the obvious examples, but think deeper: do you actualize yourself on your vacations, do you work toward a deep personal goal, or do you passively absorb sun and commercial literature? Do you equate driving with music time? Is your dinner table a place of vibrant discussion (yes, even with the occasional scuffle and contention!), or is it a place of silent worship to the flat-screen?

Think about your relationship with entertainment. How are you entertained? Is it through something which requires effort, but produces intrinsic rewards; or is it an unrewarding yet highly enticing act of receiving stimulation. How do you go without entertainment? Could you go a day, a week, a month without that connection? Could you realize that the flickering light of a campfire provides the same level of stimulation as cable TV, which pales compared to the intrigue of a good conversation. Finally, can you entertain? Can you make yourself content, and create around yourself an environment in which people have fun with each other?

WTF
I don't mean to say that it's futile, that you shouldn't try to prepare or protect yourself. Rather, I want you to do these things from a place of understanding and rationalism, versus fear. TPTB are behaving out of fear, and they want you to be as well. Don't let that happen. When you think the world will end in days/weeks/months, you don't think about your great-grandchildren. Put another way, did you come from a family which thought generations ahead, and provided you with useful tools to survive, or did each generation of your family look only after itself, assuming the next would 'figure it out?' Which family would you have preferred to come from?